Background
My mother is not good at making good decisions. From little things, like who she is friends with or what to buy at the shops to bigger things like what to spend large amounts of money on, which job to go to if there is a conflict in schedules. There are so many examples of her poor judgement. She sold her house and used the money to buy loads of unneccesary stuff, that depreciated in value very quickly. She has nothing left to show for it.
The biggest one, though, was a couple of years ago. Im sure I wrote a thread about it but in case you dont know-

She had been doing acting lessons. Had an agent (I dont even want to know how much THAT was costing her!). She was also working as a carer to people with physical disabilities.
This particular day, she had been rostered on to care for a patient in thier home. A regular, weekly job. She got a call from the acting agency with an extras gig. Which she took. Did not inform her employer and simply did not show up for work. Leaving the client without a carer for the morning. She was fired as you would expect. She couldnt pay her rent.

6 weeks later I got a phonecall from her telling me all of this and that she had been served an eviction notice. I asked if she had gotten on to centrelink to get payments started and she said she didnt want to*. She said "If only the landlord would give me 2 more weeks, Ill have another job" and "they shouldnt have sacked me, I didnt do anything wrong, the client didnt like me, he has something against me". Its never her fault. I told her again she didnt have a choice. Get to centrelink first thing in the morning and sort this out. She didnt. It was another 2 weeks before she finally did it. In the meantime her and my then 18yo brother were now homeless and wanting to stay with us (in my MIL house). I told her no as it was not the first time something like this had happened and she needed to take responsibilty for herself and know that she cannot fall back on me and my family everytime she makes a (huge) mistake. We did store her belongings and allowed my brother to stay for a couple of days (him leaving was a whole other thing)

*For as long as I can remember she has had this attitude that being on "welfare" is extremely unsavoury. If you are on welfare everyone hates you and looks down on you.

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I have been thinking about offering to be her power of attorney for a long while. She obviously is not capable of making big decisions on her own. Before she was receiving a very low income and whatever centrelink supplemented. But now, my Grandmother has passed away she is set to recieve a substantial amount of money. Im really worried shes going to blow it all again.

I have suggested she use some to buy a small house for herself outright and put the rest in a high interest account. But honestly, I cant see it happening. Even if she does get a house, its unlikely the rest will make it to the bank and if it does it wont be there long.

She needs to be assessed, and while I know she is not capable of looking after herself, even day to day is borderline, what if "they" dont see it?

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The thing is, Im not sure I am up for the job. I dont have a problem being her health advocate down the track. I dont think Ill have a problem acting in her best interests in that regard. But I dont know anything about financials. Im not sure I want to be responsible for someone elses financial well being.

So, I have a few questions.

How do I go about getting her mental capability assessed? Last time we looked into it, the GP basically said there is nothing we can do unless she agrees to it. Is that still true if I am Enduring Power of Attorney? I know that if she is deemed incapable I can make some decisions for her care, but what about when she hasnt yet recieved a diagnosis? Can centrelink help with this, especially given her track record?
How does the assessment work?
Do I have to tell her I think she is incapable of looking after herself? I dont want her to feel like I think she is stupid or crazy, but I have to do something for her. This cannot continue.

If she loses her job again, can I have her put back on centrelink or does she have to seek it out herself? Will she be eligible for anything once she recieves her inheritence anyway? What if she uses part of it to buy a house? Is the house then an asset that means she owns too much?

I was considering suggesting that I go on the title for the house too, so that she cant just sell it for cash. Is this a bad idea? Will it cause me problems with my centrelink payments? Or if she runs into trouble down the track, will I be liable because Im on the title? I wouldnt actually have anything to do with it, except to be an obstacle if/when she tries to sell it.

Can I ensure that at least part of the remaining money is put in some kind of non accessible high interest bank account? I want her to be able to access it if neccesary, but not all the time to buy random crap with.

What have I not thought of? Any tips, experience, HELP you can offer would be very much appreciated!

I feel so out of my depth, but there is no-one else that can help her. I am the only family she has (aside from my brother who has gone awol and clearly has no regard for her welbeing at all!!)